A potted history of honours caps

The country will be overcome with football fever in June and July as Brazil host the world cup for the second time and 32 teams from 5 confederations will be taking to the pitch to try to win the ultimate prize. Most of the players taking part have already received caps for their country, but what exactly does this mean? If you have you ever wondered where the term ‘caps’ comes from, read this article, wonder no more!

What are caps?

Back in the early days of football players could wear what they liked, there were no football kits back in the late 1800s and this often led to confusion when games were played. To try and stop this problem players on the same team started wearing matching caps, so you could spot different teams straight away. This idea stuck and in the first international match between England and Scotland in 1872 players on opposing teams wore different headwear, it was agreed the Scottish would wear cowls and the English players wore a range of school caps. This practice was formally approved in 1886 when it was announced all future England player taking part in international matches would receive a white silk cap embellished with a red rose and they would be classes as ‘International Caps’.

What does that symbolise today?

Today, whenever a football player takes part in a match for their country they receive a ‘cap’ and it’s seen as an honour to play for your country. At the time of writing Peter Shilton the retired goalkeeper holds the most caps for his country totally an impressive 125 appearances for England. David Beckham currently lies in second place with an equally impressive 115 appearances.

Honours caps are an investment

Sadly, some players have had to sell their caps over the years and honours caps command high prices at auction. We stock a range of commemorative caps at Mcdade so if you want to invest in a little slice of history, take a look at our honours cap section and find classic headwear from some of the most memorable matches of the last few decades.